15 dead in Boko Haram attack on Nigerian city

At least 15 people have died after Boko Haram Islamic extremists struck the Nigerian city of Maiduguri with grenades and suicide bombers.

Witnesses said the suicide bombers blew themselves up as soldiers were trying to repel an attack by insurgents who arrived firing from the back of three trucks and launched grenades that set homes afire in Duwari village, near a major military barracks.

As people fled and soldiers engaged in a shootout, a woman pretending she was a victim of Boko Haram exploded in the midst of a family.

A second woman jumped into the fray and detonated herself.

It comes as Nigeria’s government said it had contained the Islamic uprising that has killed 20,000 people in six years.